1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and a system for recording dictated material such as speech on a recording medium and for subsequently transcribing the dictated material from the recording medium and more particularly, to a method of and a system for recording dictated material and instructions concerning the dictated material on the same recording medium without the recording of the instructions obliterating any of the dictated material recorded thereon or otherwise interfering with the integrity of the recorded material.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known in the art to record dictated mterial to be transcribed and instructions concerning the dictated material on the same recording medium along with indexing signals to indicate the presence of the instructions and to indicate the end of a unit of dictated material. Representative of such prior art recording systems are the recording systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,791 issued on Feb. 8, 1977. However, certain problems have been encountered with these and other prior art recording systems.
For example, in some of these prior art recording systems, the dictated material and instructions concerning dictated material are recorded on the same track of the recording medium with the result that instructions can be recorded only as an alternative to dictated material if the obliterating of dictated material is to be avoided. Thus, the instructions will usually follow the dictated material to which they relate and may follow the dictated material to which they relate by a substantial period of time with the result that the dictated material has frequently been transcribed before instructions concerning it have been reached on the recording medium.
Among the prior art attempts to avoid this problem is a prior art recording system in which an instruction signal is recorded on the recording medium in a track which is separate from that track in which the dictated material and instructions are recorded. While these attempts enable instructions with respect to dictated material and dictated material to which said instructions relate to be located on the recording medium, they do not provide for dictated material and instructions concerning the dictated material to be located at substantially the same location along the length of a recording medium.
One prior art attempt to avoid this problem with prior art recording systems has been to record an instruction indexing signal on the same track of a recording medium as the dictated material and to record instructions concerning the dictated material on a different track of the recording medium. The difficulty with this prior art recording system is that the recording of the instruction indexing signal on the same track as the dictated material will result in the obliteration of dictated material if the instructions are with respect to dictated material which has been previously recorded and which has been followed by additional dictated material. Thus, in this prior art recording system, instructions can only be provided with respect to dictated material which is to be dictated immediately following the instructions or with respect to dictated material which has been dictated immediately prior to the instructions without causing the obliteration of dictated material by the instruction indexing signal.
Accordingly, in this and other prior art recording systems, it is difficult if not impossible for instructions to be entered with respect to previously dictated material by placing the recording system in a reverse mode of operation until the previously dictated material is reached, by listening to the previously dictated material, and by entering an instruction with respect to the previously dictated material at the same location along the length of the tape as the previously dictated material without dictated material being obliterated either by the instruction or by the instruction indexing signal indicating the presence of the instructions on a different track on the recording medium. Moreover, even if the obliteration of dictated material by instructions or an instruction indexing signal could be tolerated in these prior art recording systems, there is always the danger in these prior art recording systems that the recording system will be placed in its recording mode of operation after the instruction has been recorded on the recording medium with the result that previously dictated material will be obliterated by the recording of additional dictated material.